Aftermath
by IndigoLight
Summary: In the aftermath of the 14th's slaughter of the Noah Clan, Bondomu wakes up. Read and Review please!


Here comes the **Queen**

All dressed in **red**

Hear her scream

**OFF WITH YOUR HEAD**

Those are the words

That everyone **dreads**

Wouldn't you want

to **keep** your head?

XxxXXx

He wakes up, and the first thing he sees is the sky.

He isn't sure how long he has been asleep, and he isn't sure where he is either. All he knows is that he has been sleeping for a very long time.

His mouth is dry and his eyes are sticky, as if he's become a statue during his long slumber. It's hard to move, and he feels so so tired, but when he just lies there and tries to go back to sleep, he can't. There is something he must do, someone he must see, and he must wake up now, or else something will end.

Someone pushes back his bangs, dark and missing its usal sheen, and gold eyes blink at the dark blue sky. The moon is hidden by black clouds, and the night is starless, not a single light in sight.

He can't talk, can't move, but someone is there and they grab his arm, gripping it hard and hoist him up to sitting position. This person hurts—they aren't very gentle about holding him in such a tight grip. He blinks groggily and gingerly licks his cracked lips, wetting them.

There is a dull, throbbing pain in his chest, as if a sword had been skewered there, and then ripped out ground is uneven and unforgiving, and bites nastily at his legs.

"Ow." he manages, and the person who's holding him suddenly clutches his other arm. He feels himself shift into a more comfortable position, and whoever's with him shakes him a little.

"Bondomu." the person hisses, his voice quiet, but sharp. "Bondomu, you bitch, wake the fuck up."

_Bondomu. Bondomu._ It sounds familiar. It's a very lovely name, anyhow. Maybe if he tried, really, really tried, and probed his mind for the right thoughts, he might have been able to remember who Bondomu was.

But he's tired, and his chest hurts, and he feels like his whole body is made of concrete, and the only thing that feels real to him are the iron grips on his arms. His body is sore, and his mind is disoriented and he can't even see properly, everything is blurry and the world is too dark. Someone's face is infront of him, although he can't locate the exact features. The person's face is half-obscured by what he _thinks_ is a helmet, but he doesn't know. Whatever it is, it's very pretty, the foggy moonlight reflects off of it.

"Bondomu." the voice isn't very comforting,however, and it's rough and edgy, like a rusty blade. But there is a pleading air laced around it, and the person shakes him harder, and he can feel the slight tremble of the fingers around his arms.

He doesn't have the strength to move, or the strength push this stranger off, so he lets his head loll back listlessly. His throat is stretched and it kind of hurts but he's too exhausted to do anything about it. The person seems to be frustrated, and he can feel his position move _again _but this time, he's leaning against someone's chest, and arm supporting his back and shoulders, the iron grips released.

A rough, calloused hand grabs his face in a rather awkward fashion, squishing his mouth and cheeks between dark fingers. "Damn you, idiot, get a fucking hold of yourself!"

He tried to tell this person to let go, but the sentence melts into an "Unnnggghhh."

The person makes a strange sound, angry and afraid at the same time, and he wonders why that is so. What was this person afraid of?

He suddenly feels the hand on his face slide down to his throat and it tightens. It's loose enough so he can breathe, but it's uncomfortable and suddenly he feels himself dragged upward, off the ground and onto unsteady feet.

He wobbles, and he's not ready enough to remain upright, so his knees buckle and he falls. He falls against the unknown person, who grunts, grabs his collar and hoists him off his legs.

"WAKE THE FUCK UP!" the stranger screams in his face.

The force of the sound hits directly in his ear and _ooooowwwwww _that _hurts. _

He feels like his brain is rattling in his skull, and his ears ring achingly. The pain, however, seems to be able to generate enough strength to groan and raise a hand to his ear, and mumble something at the stranger.

"Ow." he mutters sleepily. "That hurts, you know."

The person in front of him sighs in what seems to be relief. _Relief? For what? _He wonders, and after blinking a few times, the world comes back into focus.

He is leaning against someone's chest, their strong arms holding him up.

"Joyd?" he asks, quietly. He remembers now. _He's _Bondomu, and this person is Joyd, they are both Embodiments of one of Noah's memory. He also remembers that Joyd supposedly hates him,and has been trying to kill him for centuries.

Its strange that he'd be here, right now, hugging him.

"Are you awake?" Joyd asks. It takes a full minute for Bondomu to process this question, and another minute for his lethargic brain to come up with a decent reply.

"Uh. Yeah." he answers dully. "What...happened, Joyd? My head hurts."

Joyd lets out a breath, and he pushes him off him, hands still on his shoulders. "Can you stand?"

"I...think so." Bondomu clumsily stands, his feet malfunctioning. Joyd's hand doesn't leave his arm.

"What do you remember?" he questions, softly, and Bondomu realizes that Joyd just spoke three sentences without swearing, and the said three questions sounded nice and soft and _not_ loud and _not _jarring to the ear and _that's_ when he realizes something must _very _wrong in order to sober Joyd's personality.

He glances up at him, tired eyes meeting hidden ones, and he can't tell what expression Joyd has on under that silver helmet. Bondomu wishes he'd take it off.

"I...remember...a mask." he says carefully, wracking his brain for some sort of clue. "And...white. Someone dressed in white." he swivels his head to the other embodiment. "Joyd, what's wrong? What happened?"

"You died." he says simply. "We died."

"...What?"

Ow, his head hurts. So does his chest. It aches and ow ow ow Bondomu slides to his knees, holding his head, and clutching his chest.

_White—_

_Sword—_

_Blood—_

_Screams—_

Memories come flooding back to him, waves crashing against the walls of his skull, and he watches in horror as a terrible scene unravels in front of his eyes, the blood and the death and the betrayal—

"No." he gasps.

But _yes. He _stands there, _He _is smiling and _He _laughs all the time, even as _he's _sliding a sword out of Bondumu's body, slick and dyed with bright red blood.

Joyd is kneeling beside him, and even under his helmet, Bondomu can sense concern radiating off of brings a little comfort, but his breaths are coming out in short gasps, and his chest hurts,searing agony that rips and tears through his whole inner person. His head feels like it's splitting in two and _ow ow ow ow it __**fucking **__hurts _and Bondomu clutches at his forehead, nails digging into pale gray skin. His stigmata are on fire, burning, flaring, and it feels like its eating him alive, chomping and chewing and melting his insides.

He's suddenly on the ground again, and feels the dirt on his back. Bondomu curls up, and he can hear Joyd say something very loudly, but he can't hear because of the blood pounding in his ears. His chest _burns._

Joyd peels his hands away from his body and after a moment, he mutters "It's still there."

"What?" Bondomu asks weakly.

"That...the burn. It's still there."

Bondomu drags himself to his knees, and glances down at his chest. Sure enough, a large white cross has burned itself into the clothes and flesh, blood and skin crusted with dried blood.

It stings. It smarts and stings and hurts and Bondomu wonders why his lungs just can't seem to get enough air anymore, no matter how deep his breaths are getting.

Joyd grabs his arms and pulls him up, supporting his back and shoulders, steadying him.

"That's not right." he murmurs. "It should have faded."

Bondomu is a little worried. If Joyd can speak so softly without having to use any type of vulgar language, then things are certainly more grimmer than he thought.

"Joyd?" he says meekly. Joyd looks down at him and asks if he's alright. He gives a lenient smirk. "No, obviously."

Joyd drags him up to a crumbling wall, and sets him down there, the wound still pulsing and burning. Bondomu puts his hand over it, and winces as it causes more waves of pain to wash over him. Why was this still there?

"It should have healed already." Says Joyd, who's sitting next to him, cross-legged and wings folded.

Bondomu doesn't raise his head, and concentrates on breathing. "Mmm."

"Did he kill off your regenerative abilities?" he muses. He draws a stick figure in the dirt with his finger, absentmindedly.

"Joyd." Bondomu says, and he looks up. "Joyd...how did you wake up?"

"I don't know." he answers tiredly. "I just woke up. I was alone, and I remembered everything. I needed to make sure that..."

His voice trails off. Bondomu decides he'll ignore it. He has a feeling Joyd won't countinue, anyway. The wound is hurting a little less, fortunately.

The edges of the burnt cross are blurring, flickering, ruined skin becoming smooth once more. It will take a lot longer to heal than a regular burn, but at least it's getting better. He also finds that it's much easier to breathe now than it was a couple of minutes ago.

"Why did you come to find _me_?" Bondomu inquires softly, and Joyd looks up to the clouds.

"I don't know." he replies, and he doesn't say anything more. He just gazes from under the rim of the helmet at the dark, starless sky. "You were the first one I thought of."

They are both silent, and the wind blows, catching Joyd's long dark curls, and throwing them up in the air.

"If I died..." Bondomu whispers. "Why am I still in this world?"

Joyd shrugs his shoulders up and down. "I don't know. I should be dead too." he pauses. "Maybe we did die.I guess we're spirits now."

Bondomu laughs, but it holds no humour, holds no mirth. "Spirits." he says, disgusted. "That's what _he _used to call the angels. And _he's _the one who did this to us."

He lapses into another long silence, and they both just sit there, thinking.

The moon peaks from behind black puffy clouds, and dim lights shine down on them.

"Where do you think _he _is now?" Joyd asks. Bondomu finally lifts his head up, resting it against the crumbly wall.

"He's dead." he answers quietly. "Before I went to sleep, I saw Adam kill him."

Joyd smirks. "Good."

The ends of Bondomu's lips turn up, just a he frowns again. "Joyd."

He looks at him. "What?"

"What do we do now?"

The question hangs heavily in the air, and he realizes that Joyd probably never had a plan in the first place.

The embodiment shrugs. "We find the others."

Bondomu feels the burn heal some more, the size of the wound growing significantly smaller. "Do you think they're alright? Desires, Phaedra...

...Adam?"

Joyd does not answer him.

"Joyd..."

He says nothing.

Bondomu bites his lip uneasily. "I'm afraid, Joyd."

He swivels his head around to meet his eyes. "Of what?"

"Everything. I don't know what to think anymore." the last sentences are spoken in a whimper. "I don't know what to do anymore."

Joyd's mouth is dry. He wasn't prepared for this. He doesn't want to be the shoulder Bondomu cries on. "You're not the type to be afraid."

"I am, I still am."

"Don't be."

"It's difficult not to be."

"It's easy."

"Aren't _you _afraid?"

Joyd stops. Bondomu always did ask the hardest questions. Was he afraid?

He never felt fear before, not up until _he _came and killed him. They had had one helluva fight and Joyd could still feel some pride spark in his chest when he thought about all the time he was able to buy for Adam's escape.

But pride didn't mean he didn't fear _him._

_He _was the best warrior since Adam, and a truly fearsome one at that. He could kill in cold blood, without showing even a hint of mercy to his enemies and ruthlessly cut down anyone in his way.

Family, or not.

"...A little." he admitted. "But things will work out, eventually. They always do."

He's quiet, and then Bondomu laughs. A _real _laugh, a _true_ laugh, the one that sounds like the wind-chimes banging gently against each other in a small breeze, the one that Joyd misses so much.

"What?" Joyd snaps, but it doesn't hold as much vigor as it usually does. He won't admit it, but he's a little glad that Bonds's gloominess is lifting.

Bondomu smiles at him. "You haven't said a swear word for more than twenty sentences."

"Shut the fuck up."

Bondomu giggles a little. The burnt cross is much smaller now, from expanding over his midsection and collar bone all down to the middle of his chest. He looks a little healthier now, too.

Joyd stands up, dusting some dirt off. Bondomu watches him.

They remain in those positions for a while, one sitting, the other standing, and they are both quiet, since they do not know what else to say to each other.

"We should go." Joyd says at last. "And find the others."

"...Yeah."

"We should figure out what's happened to us, too."

"Yeah."

Joyd shuffles over and offers his hand. Bondomu blinks at it, surprised, before grinning reaching out to grab pulls the other embodiment up to his feet.

"Where do we go?" asks Bondomu. Joyd shrugs and jabs a finger at the horizon.

"I think...Judge and Demon Eye died there." he murmurs. "That's a place to start."

Bondomu nods obediently. "Okay."

They start walking, though Joyd is striding a little slower than usual, so Bonds can catch up to him. He can tell that the burn scar still hurts, but Bondomu doesn't complain, not at all. He still lags behind, even with him walking at an even slower pace.

Joyd decides he can forgive him this once, and ignores it. He stops when Bondomu stops and lets him take a breath.

He waits, and Bondomu gazes at him.

"Joyd?"

"What?"

"Do you think we'll be okay?"

He rolls his eyes. "You repeat things a lot."

"Answer my question." they started walking again.

"Yeah." he replied. "We always are."

Bondomu stuck his tongue out in thought. Joyd wasn't usually this optimistic. Not that he was going to complain. He liked the nice Joyd.

They walked, and walked and walked, legs moving in silence, shrouded in a blanket of shadows. The moon shone brightly, and Bondomu hummed before asking his companion,

"Are we friends?"

Joyd doesn't answer.

XxxX

**D=**

**XD XD XD XD. **

**Another quickie. I've been having a writer's block, so I thought I should write this to freshen up.**

**I got reeeeeeaaaaaally lazy at the ending, so things kind of got sappy there. =_=**

**Well, enjoy, read, and review please. Support this pairing! AND JASDEBI IS LOVE!**


End file.
